After closing a $2.5 billion fundraising round in January, Grab is valued at north of $6 billion. (Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg)

This story is part of Forbes' coverage of Malaysia’s Richest 2018. See the full coveragehere.

When Grab closed a $2.5 billion fundraising round in January, it not only valued the ride-hailing company at north of $6 billion, according to Pitchbook, but it also put cofounder Anthony Tan on the list of Malaysia's 50 richest. He debuts with an estimated net worth of $300 million. Led by SoftBank and Didi Chuxing, the investment was Southeast Asia's biggest single venture-capital fundraising round ever. Other investors include Hyundai Motor and Toyota Tsusho.

Malaysia’s richest 2018

Tan, 36, the startup's chief executive, could have enjoyed a cushy ride with his family's auto-sales business, run by his father, Tan Heng Chew, and two uncles. (Heng Chew and his brothers made the list the last five years before falling off this year.) But six years ago he teamed up with a Harvard Business School classmate, Tan Hooi Ling (no relation), to launch a taxi-hailing application in their home city of Kuala Lumpur that they first called MyTeksi. Today she's Grab's chief operating officer but believed to hold a smaller stake than Tan's. His mother, Khor Swee Wah, was an early investor and serves as a company officer.

Grabbing market share

With eight investment rounds under its belt, Grab has branched out into services for private cars, motorcycle taxis, carpooling and goods delivery while making an ever increasing investment in mobile-software research and development. It offers transportation services in 168 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries, having added Cambodia and Myanmar in 2017.

Last year it also plunged into the fierce online payments fray with a mobile wallet feature for the whole region. Grab has been headquartered in Singapore since 2014. What's more, Tan has taken Singaporean citizenship, according to a Grab filing with the Singapore government last year, but Forbes Asia considers him Malaysian for purposes of the Malaysia's 50 richest list. Tan did not respond to questions from Forbes Asia.

Losses triple

Grab still has a long road ahead before it can profit from a regional hailing market in which customers spent an estimated $5.1 billion last year. Its holding company lost $82.8 million in 2016, more than triple its losses in 2015, according to its filings with the Singapore government. It faces strikes and protests by drivers, lawsuits in Vietnam and Myanmar, and governments still debating how best to license and tax ride-hailing companies.

Anthony Tan is the cofounder of ride-sharing company Grab. (Ore Huiying/Bloomberg)

In all eight countries, Grab competes against U.S. giant Uber as well as homegrown app companies. Most formidable is Go-Jek, which pioneered ride-hailing in Indonesia with motorcycle taxis. It just raised $1.5 billion and announced plans to make the Philippines its first overseas market. Its investors include Tencent, Google and Temasek. But Tan has vowed to spend $700 million to expand in Indonesia by 2020.

As Uber's biggest shareholder, SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son could relieve some of the pressure by insisting that Uber cede some or all of its Southeast Asian markets to Grab. Despite widespread rumors, both Uber and Grab say no deal is in the offing.